Newtown report could take months

Published 10:06 pm, Thursday, January 24, 2013

HARTFORD -- The prosecutor investigating the Newtown school massacre told a new panel Thursday not to expect a final report on the Dec. 14 slaughter anytime soon.

Danbury State's Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III announced that while no criminal prosecution seems likely to emerge from the mass murder and suicide, he wants to suppress much of the evidence from the public anyway.

"This is an ongoing criminal investigation, for which I have obtained extensions of time from the Superior Court to keep documents sealed, so that the investigation may continue unencumbered by distractions," Sedensky said.

"The rules of professional responsibility for prosecutors require that I take steps to prevent publicity that would have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing a potential prosecution," he said.

"Of course, if the investigation reveals that there should be a criminal prosecution, then that prosecution would take precedence over any report," Sedensky said to the panel of municipal officials, mental health experts, security professionals and social-service providers.

"Though no such prosecution currently appears on the horizon, I am sure you can appreciate that all leads need to be investigated and evidence examined before final decisions and statements are made," he said.

He offered to meet privately with a representative of the advisory panel to provide information that he might not release to the public.

Sedensky said during the first week after the shootings, federal, state and local police worked around the clock investigating the crime scenes at Sandy Hook Elementary School; at the 36 Yogananda St. home of Nancy Lanza, whose son Adam, 20, murdered her before driving her car to the school; and elsewhere.

It will be months before a report is released.

"We are hoping for some time this summer, perhaps in June," said Sedensky, a Newtown resident, adding that details on the mental health of Adam Lanza are protected from disclosure under privacy regulations and might not be able to be provided to the commission.

Bill Ritter, the former governor of Colorado who as district attorney of Denver investigated the aftermath of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, told the panel that the nation is watching.

"You could wind up saving lives at some point in the future," said Ritter, who later became governor and became a target for a deranged gunman who was shot and killed by a state trooper outside his office. "Healing can happen," but it can be a long-term process."

Richard Bonnie, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, who was an adviser to the Virginia Tech Review Panel following that 2007 shooting, warned that legislation and regulatory changes can be affected by emotions.

"Tragedy can compromise thoughtful policy making," he said via video connection from Virginia.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, in the panel's first meeting Thursday morning, said the consequence that seems to be separating Newtown from other mass shootings is that momentum for a positive reaction to the crime seems to be gaining every day, not fading.

"We must take a serious look at public safety, particularly school safety, so our children can grow up and go to school without the fear of violence in a culture that does, in fact, glorify violence," Malloy said.

"We need to have a discussion about stopping that," Malloy said. "The recommendations you will craft over the coming weeks and months will no doubt take us toward that goal: better mental health, better safety in our schools and a system that is set up to stop the glorification of the violence."

Later in the afternoon, after Sedensky's testimony, Malloy, a former prosecutor, was asked by reporters about the reticence to release more details of the shooting.

"I think there's always this situation where a prosecutor is trying to make the right balance," Malloy said.

"This was an attack so outrageous, in the killing of 20 6-year-olds that in many ways it's going to have an imprint, the likes of which" I can remember remember where I was, in the classroom, when someone came in to say President Kennedy was shot," Malloy said. "I think this is that kind of event. So I think he needs to take the time necessary to conclude the investigation. Having said that, I would hope that as little time is necessary. It's more important to get it right than to rush out a report."

On Friday, a legislative subcommittee looking into issues of school security after the Sandy Hook shootings, will hold a public hearing at 9:30 a.m. in Room 2-C of the Legislative Office Building.